Forget the buttoned-up suburb, circa 2012, to envision Issaquah from a century ago.

Issaquah in 1912 included more saloons than churches. The coalmines and logging camps attracted a tough-as-nails crowd. The era required a little more steel in the backbone.

Townsfolk eked out a hardscrabble life, but still managed to loosen up at the Stockholm Hotel & Saloon or Clark’s Place. In homes, simple conveniences — indoor plumbing, for instance — ranked as unheard-of luxuries.

Imagine a typical day from 1912.

The chill February air is a bracing alarm, almost as difficult to ignore as the crowing rooster outside.

Issaquah History Museums Executive Director Erica Maniez leans against a historic road sign at the Gilman Town Hall Museum. By Greg Farrar

Find hidden treasures from the past in the city’s unofficial ‘attic’

There are 8,359. And counting.

That’s how many artifacts, including 3-D objects and an array of documents, make up the Issaquah History Museums’ collection.

With 7,111 photos to complement the collection, there’s no better place to get a sense of what makes Issaquah, well, Issaquah.

Among the items are rare finds — an unusual Native American trading knife buried beneath the floor of an Issaquah business or a logger’s skidding cone made right here by the town blacksmith.

Some are specific to this area, such as an early 1900s billboard — discovered later facedown in a ditch — advertising the latest and greatest in Issaquah merchants, medical care and goods.

But while each item lays claim to its own history and back story, every artifact weaves into a fabric that tells a story of who we are as a community, how we came to be and even where we’re going in the future.

Mary Scott was looking for stock at a yard or estate sale when she found it.

As a local antique dealer and Issaquah History Museums volunteer, she knew there was more to the old 16-by-16-by-26 inch wooden box on wheels than what probably met the eye.

And while officials with the museums are still trying to figure out the technical term for it, for now it’s been dubbed the hot box — a contraption meant to keep large amounts of food warm while it’s transported en masse to railroad workers or loggers at mealtimes. It is thought to have been used between 1890 and 1920.

Scott joined more than 40 other donors in 2011 to bring in artifacts and photographs that help piece together Issaquah’s rich history one item at a time. Items donated to the organizations must, first and foremost, be linked to Issaquah, and they must also have unique appeal.

Dylan Wall (left) and Patrick White, in the band Buster Austero, perform at the Old Fire House Teen Center in Redmond. By Greg Farrar

‘I’m bored’ is no longer a legit excuse

Issaquah ain’t the quaint little town it used to be. In the past decade alone, the number of people living within the pocket community grew from 11,000 in the year 2000 to more than 30,000 in the latest Census 2010 figures.

With so many tech industries drawing families here, the burgeoning population is straining all age demographics.

Especially teens. With busy sports and school activity schedules, ever-demanding graduation requirements or even the time consumption of volunteering or gainful employment, what’s a teen to do to find a little down time?

Just about every small town has a version of the joke, “The only thing to do here is leave.” Luckily for teens, Issaquah is smack dab in the middle of the 425 area code and opportunities abound to find something to do without looking too far. Here’s a look at just three options to investigate.

Don Wilson, a founding member of The Ventures, shows off gold records and memorabilia from a long career in music. By Tom Corrigan

Little did Don Wilson know that the $15 electric guitar he bought from a pawnshop in Tacoma in 1958 would lead to worldwide fame, more than 100 million albums sold and now his own line of custom-made guitars.

Wilson, a Sammamish resident and the sole surviving original member of seminal rock and roll band The Ventures, has partnered with his son, Issaquah resident Tim Wilson, to translate his band’s rabid international following into a signature line of Ventures guitars.

The story of Wilson Brothers Guitars is closely intertwined with the story of The Ventures — the meteoric rise of two 20-something Tacoma-area construction workers to superstardom in the pre-British Invasion 1960s, their influence on countless later bands, and enduring popularity in Japan and the rest of Asia, where The Ventures still perform to thousands of adoring fans.

Tired of working construction, Wilson and friend Bob Bogle picked up a pair of beat-up old electric guitars and set to practicing and playing club shows around the area. The band’s modest goals were quickly surpassed when they reworked Chet Atkins’ “Walk Don’t Run” into an instrumental surf-rock anthem. The song was a hit, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Singles charts and turning The Ventures into worldwide stars.

A racer speeds around a corner on West Beaver Lake Drive Southeast, at the beginning of the 13.8-mile leg of the 2010 Beaver Lake Triathlon. By Christopher Huber

The triathlon has become one of the most popular spring and summer sports. It attracts people of all ages, athleticism and professional backgrounds.

Essentially, the race consists of swimming, bicycling and running. However, triathlons range in difficulty from the Olympic and sprint races to the rigorous Ironman events. The three popular local races — Issaquah Triathlon, Beaver Lake Triathlon and Lake Sammamish Triathlon — are classified as sprints.

Because the actual season does not start until late May, many people put off training for triathlons until the weather warms up.

But veteran triathletes like Mark Stendal, of Sammamish, begin preparing for triathlons in January.

Stendal has been involved in triathlons for 20 years. He has competed in at least 60 triathlons.

“I did five triathlons last year, two sprints and three Olympics,” Stendal said.

He is the founder of the Beaver Lake Triathlon, an event held in late August that has grown in popularity every year.

State wildlife biologist Brian Kertson spent five years studying the local cougar population, including a 130-pound, 2-year-old male tranquilized, captured and tagged in the Cedar River watershed in 2008. Contributed

As the snow moves down the mountains reaching lower elevations, so do most mountain wildlife inhabitants, from small animals to deer and elk.

And just in case you were wondering, bears don’t hibernate.

Those are two basic bits of information passed on by local experts asked to describe what happens to Issaquah wildlife during the winter months. It’s not the temperature, but snow that motivates most animals’ cold weather behavior, said Stephen West, associate director of the School of Environmental and Forestry Sciences at the University of Washington.

For the most part, cougars, deer and other local wildlife can tolerate any cold the Northwest brings their way, West said. It’s mountain snow they can’t deal with — it makes it more difficult for them to get around and much more difficult for them to find food. So as snow appears, many animals head for lower elevations. There are exceptions, including bears.

Bears don’t migrate, but rather stay in their normal territory, said Kenneth Raedeke, an affiliate professor in the UW’s Wildlife Science Program and the president of an environmental consulting firm.

And despite what you may have heard all your life, bears don’t hibernate, Raedeke and West said. Full hibernation means an animal is unconscious and its body temperature drops to match the surrounding temperature, West said. For an animal the size of a bear, waking up from such a state would require more biological energy and heat than they have available to them.

While they don’t fully hibernate, bears do go into a sort of relaxed state for perhaps three or four of the coldest months of the year, Raedeke said, adding a bear’s heart rate can drop as low as eight beats per minute. Even so, bears can and do remain somewhat active, coming out of their hiding spots periodically. And if you happen to stumble into an occupied bear den during the winter, the resident likely will take notice.

Carole Moklebust plants a container of flowers that could add some early color to gardens. By Ari Cetron

So, winter is finally winding down. The sun doesn’t set until after you’ve left work, and maybe, just maybe, there will be an actual summer this year. If you’re hoping for a summer full of fresh-from-the garden veggies and tree branches laden with fruit, now is a good time to start, but don’t expect to enjoy the fruits of your labor right away.

“Plants need time in the ground to grow, bud, bloom and fruit,” Jane Garrison, a local master gardner wrote in an email. “You need light to grow plants, and we don’t get enough until after March 15. You need heat to grow plants too, and last year we didn’t get enough until August.”

But don’t be discouraged, say gardening experts. There’s plenty you can do now to will give you rewards in the coming months.

“There’s a whole bunch of stuff to put in the ground in February,” said Matt Pommer, general manager at Squak Mountain Nursery.

Some vegetables, for example, do best in the spring and fall, preferring the so-called “shoulder seasons,” Pommer said. In particular, rhubarb, asparagus and horseradish can be planted around now.

However, band members tucked a reference to a certain local burger joint into a song. The nod is the closest the band comes to a clear-cut reference to Issaquah.

The mention appears in the song “All Nite Diner” on the “Interstate 8” EP. (The collection dropped in August 1996, a year before the album “The Lonesome Crowded West” turned the band into 1990s indie rock darlings.)